


The Family Business

by realityisoverrated



Series: Infinite Love [113]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Polyamory, Polyfidelity, Smoaking billionaires, Toliver, flommy, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 09:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11078367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realityisoverrated/pseuds/realityisoverrated
Summary: William never thought anything could be more shocking than learning Oliver Queen was his dad. Boy was he wrong.





	The Family Business

**Author's Note:**

> This story depicts a polyamorous relationship between one woman and two men. If this is not something you are interested in, please stop and go no further. 
> 
> Many of you have been asking for this installment for awhile. I hope it was worth the wait. The installment is from William's POV.
> 
> The always generous Lademonessa was kind enough to gift me with the new title art in today's installment. Thank you, Jen. Your support of this series is appreciated. I am blessed to have so many kind and creative readers. <3
> 
> This installment is 94/113. The installment list has grown too long for the notes section. You can now find the chronological list for the series, with hyperlinks, at http://archiveofourown.org/works/11051019
> 
> If you are new to the series, welcome.
> 
> Arrow and its characters do not belong to me.

Artwork by Lademonessa

 

William crouched low behind a desk in the library. A man with a gun was holding his ex-girlfriend and twenty-eight Starling City University students hostage. William was in the foreign language lab with six other students, including Emma Green, preparing for an oral exam the next day. William had flipped off the light in the lab as soon as the gunman started shooting. So far, the gunman hadn’t realized that the six of them were in the small room off the main reading room.

A soft scraping noise drew William’s eyes to the ceiling. He crawled across the floor, following the noise. He was convinced someone was in the ceiling. A panel on the ceiling slid back and a man with a bow slung across his back dropped from the ceiling right in front of William. Even in the darkness, the silhouette was unmistakable.

“Holy shit,” William whispered, “you’re the Green Arrow.”

“Is everyone all right?” the vigilante whispered through a voice synthesizer.

“We’re okay,” William told his childhood idol. “There is one gunman and twenty-eight hostages that I could see from the door. He has them all sitting in the middle of the reading room. He has a duffle bag full of guns. So far, no one has been hurt.”

The Green Arrow turned his head to the side, “Did you hear that Overwatch?”

There was a pause and William assumed the Green Arrow was listening to Overwatch. William wondered who Overwatch was. There was speculation that, in addition to Spartan and Arsenal, the Green Arrow had a partner who was a computer expert. Overwatch seemed like a good codename for a computer expert.

“On my mark,” the Green Arrow said. “When I give you the signal, you need to lead these people to the stairwell on the eastside and out to the quad. The police will be waiting for you.”

The Green Arrow appeared to be staring at him. “Oh,” William said with embarrassment, “I thought you were talking to Overwatch.”

“No, I’m talking to you. Can you get these people out?” the Green Arrow asked.

“Yes,” William would’ve happily agreed to anything the masked man asked.

The Green Arrow moved to the door and rose to his full height. He opened the door quietly and nocked an arrow, “Now.”

The Green Arrow rushed into the reading room and growled, “Put the gun down.”

Arsenal and Spartan appeared in the reading room at the same time the Green Arrow did. The gunman was surrounded.

“I won’t ask again,” the Green Arrow commanded.

“I have a bomb,” the gunman yelled. “I’ll kill everyone.”

Many of the hostages began to cry. Arsenal lowered his bow and ran from the room.

“You don’t want to kill these people,” the Green Arrow said taking a slow step towards the gunman.

“The bitch says I’m not good enough for her now that she’s at college. Like she didn’t grow up in the Glades,” the gunman pointed the gun at a young woman cowering on the floor with her arms over head.

The Green Arrow stepped sideways to move closer to the gunman’s target, “I think the fact that you call her a bitch makes you not good enough for her.”

The gunman turned the gun onto the vigilante and William realized that the Green Arrow’s words had the added benefit of redirecting the would-be shooter’s anger.

The gunman’s arm shook, “Fuck you, asshole.”

Arsenal ran back into the reading room, “All clear.”

“Last chance, put the gun down,” the Green Arrow said.

“I told you there was a bomb,” the gunman snarled.

“Not anymore,” the Green Arrow let his arrow loose and knocked the gun from the shooters hand.

The gunman dove for his duffle bag of weapons.

“Go,” Spartan said to the hostages as he helped some to their feet.

William turned to the students in the lab, “Let’s go. We’re leaving.” William stepped out of the room and gestured for the others to follow him. He pointed to the staircase, “Go.”

Emma slipped her hand into William’s and pulled, “Will, we need to go.”

William watched as the Green Arrow grappled with the gunman. Hostages were knocking into William as he watched Arsenal, Spartan and the Green Arrow take down the shooter. The Green Arrow looked up, “William, get Emma and the others out of here.”

William nodded his head and helped herd the remaining hostages to the stairwell. Hand in hand with Emma, he ran down the stairs and into the cold winter night. The quad was full of police officers.

“Are you all right?” a gruff voice asked him.

William blinked his eyes to get them to focus. Captain Lance was standing in front of him. William turned back to look at the library, “Yeah, I’m fine, gramps.” The only thought he had room for was, _the_ _Green Arrow knows my name_.

He wrapped an arm around a shaking Emma. She looked up at him and with a grin on her face said, “Everything about your family suddenly became very clear.”

William looked back towards the library and laughed. Emma was right, he had no idea how it had taken him this long to figure it out.

 

It was three o’clock on a Monday afternoon when William walked into Verdant. He’d been up the whole night thinking that his Starling City family made a lot more sense when you realized that four of them were superheroes and everybody else in the family knew it. His dad, Uncle Roy and John now seemed less clumsy and more badass as he remembered every lame story to explain a limp or a bruise. All of the canceled or changed plans made more sense too. The fact that his dad, Uncle Roy, John and Felicity would all disappear together and Tommy, Thea and Lyla wouldn’t’ even blink when their spouses left birthday parties and holiday meals early also seemed more plausible when considering they were married to superheroes.

“Oh, hi hon,” Donna said as she walked into the bar. She was dressed in jeans, a sweater and a pair of sneakers. Her normally large hair was pulled into a sleek ponytail. “What are you doing here?”

“Hi, Gram. Oliver said he was dropping off some papers for you and that I should meet him here,” William told her.

Donna looked surprised, “He told you to meet him here?”

William nodded, “I told him I needed to see him and he told me to meet him here at three.”

Donna looked towards the back nervously. She linked her arm through William’s and sat him at the bar, “Let me check if he came in the backdoor, okay sweetie?”

A few minutes later, Oliver sat down on the stool next to him. “Rough night?” he asked looking at his son in the mirror.

“You could say that,” William answered.

“I heard about the gunman at school,” Oliver said.

William laughed, “I bet you did.”

Oliver arched his brow and then dropped his head, “I was hoping you wouldn’t realize I used your name.”

William smiled sheepishly, “I guess you can take Oliver Queen out of the Green Arrow, but not the dad.”

“What about Emma?” Oliver asked.

William arched a brow, “She’s a hell of a lot smarter than me. She knows.”

Oliver ran his hands over his head, “Is she all right?”

“She’s not going to tell anyone,” William felt the need to protect his friend.

“I’m not worried about her telling anyone. Bobby will be devastated if she quits.”

“Quit?” William hadn’t even considered Emma quitting her job. A hollow pit formed in his stomach at the thought of not having Bobby as an excuse to talk to her whenever he ran into her. “Emma loves Bobby,” he said more to convince himself than his dad.

Oliver sent a text and then rose from his stool, “Come on. If you know, you might as well know the whole thing.”

William followed Oliver through the club to a secure door. Oliver’s fingers flew across the keypad and the sound of mechanical deadbolts shifting seemed to echo around them. William’s fingers flexed at his sides with the desire to pull the door open and rush past his dad. Oliver opened the door and gestured for William to go ahead of him. William didn’t need to be asked twice and he stepped past his dad and practically ran down the flight of stairs.

“Wow,” he said as he stepped off the bottom stair and took in the state of the art command center.

“Felicity never goes halfway,” Oliver said with pride. “She’s been making upgrades since her first time down here.”

“How long were you dating before you told her?” William asked as he slowly walked up to a case that held the Green Arrow’s suit.

Oliver chuckled, “We weren’t dating when I told her. She’d been working in QC’s IT department and I’d been going to her for a few months to ask for tech support. She was suspicious, but she kept helping me. One night, I was shot and I went to her for help. I asked her to bring me here to John. They saved my life that night – the first of many.”

There was a lot of information packed into his dad’s statement. He had so many questions. William moved to the case holding Spartan’s uniform, “How’d Dig find out?”

“The story I told you of how I met John is true. Your grandmother hired him to be my bodyguard when I returned from the island. I spent weeks giving him the slip and then he was poisoned by a curare laced bullet. I brought him back here to save his life.”

It was a common pastime in Starling City to share Green Arrow encounters, his family was no different. Felicity and Tommy had both been publicly saved by the Green Arrow, multiple times, as had his Aunt Thea. It was a different type of story that came to mind as he looked at Arsenal’s suit, “Did you really shoot Uncle Roy?”

“I did,” Oliver blushed. “My impulse control wasn’t what it should’ve been. I was trying to protect him from a dangerous situation.”

“Were you trying to protect him or keep him away from Aunt Thea?” William teased.

Oliver chuckled, “I was worried that he was going to drag Thea into the dangerous situation with him, but I wasn’t trying to separate them. He was good for Thea – still is. Now, if Tommy had shot him with an arrow, it would’ve been to keep Roy away from Thea.”

“How did Tommy find out?” The smile fell from his face as he saw pain flash across his dad’s face.

“Malcolm was being honored as Starling City’s, Man of the Year, for the work he was doing with Tommy’s mom’s clinic. Gunmen arrived at the ceremony and tried to kill him. Tommy was there. The Hood showed up to save them. Malcolm got hurt and I was trying to help and Tommy pulled a gun on me. I asked him to trust me. He asked me why he should.” Oliver looked away. “I lowered my hood.”

“I bet that led to lots of kissing,” William knocked his shoulder into his dad.

Oliver looked at him with surprise and smiled, “Unfortunately, it was less kissing and more yelling and name calling. Tommy was really angry. He didn’t approve – still doesn’t – not really.”

“He can’t disapprove that much,” William said as he examined a rack of arrows. “He married you and had four babies with you and Felicity.”

Oliver leaned against a table, “If I told Tommy I was closing down operations and promised that I’d never pick up my bow again, he’d crack open a bottle of champagne.”

William couldn’t say he was overly surprised that Tommy didn’t like that his husband was a masked hero. “He loves you. He lost you once, he doesn’t want to lose you again.”

Oliver smiled, “It took me longer to figure that out for myself.”

“Who else knows?” William’s fingers closed around his dad’s bow and he looked for permission. Oliver nodded and William lifted the bow.

“Everyone in the family knows – not the kids, except Grace. There are a few others,” Oliver answered.

“Gracie knows?” William asked with surprise.

“Yeah, she figured it out when she was still fairly young.” Oliver shrugged, “I guess John, Roy and I are very familiar silhouettes to her. She was seven and saw the Green Arrow, Arsenal and Spartan on tv and asked Lyla if Uncle Oliver would teach her to use a bow.”

William chuckled, “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize the three of you. Now that I know, it seems super obvious.”

“Are you all right?” Oliver asked. “I know this is a lot to take in.”

“Well, it’s not every day you learn your childhood idol is your dad,” William grinned.

Oliver smiled sheepishly, “You sure it wasn’t the Flash?”

“I lived in Central City, so everyone loved the Flash, but I knew I’d never be able to run as fast as him, no matter how hard I tried. Archery, on the other hand, that was a skill I could learn.”

Oliver perked up, “You know how to shoot?”

“I started taking archery lessons when I was eight. Yeah, I can shoot. I’m pretty good too – not as good as you and Roy, but decent.”

Oliver grabbed his quiver and held it out to his son, “Let’s see what you can do.”

William took the quiver and followed Oliver into a large room that had multiple targets set up at varying distances and heights. Oliver took the bow so William could strap on the quiver. Once the quiver was secured he took the bow back from his dad. “Any target in particular?”

“Start wherever you’d like.” Oliver took a step back and folded his arms across his chest.

William picked out the furthest target and took a deep cleansing breath. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have any fears of missing the bullseye, but with the Green Arrow watching him, he was buzzing with nervous energy. He rolled his neck on his shoulders and took another deep breath. He set his feet and removed an arrow from the quiver and took aim. He focused on the center of the target and let the arrow fly. As soon as it left the string, he knew it wasn’t going to find the center of the target. He immediately pulled another arrow and let it go. The second arrow landed true.

Oliver began to call out the targets and William sent one arrow after another into the locations his dad called out. It didn’t take long for his quiver to empty. He lowered his bow and turned to face the Green Arrow.

“That was – impressive.” Oliver grinned, “You’re pretty good.”

William restrained himself from cheering with joy, instead he smiled, “Thanks.”

Oliver began to pull the arrows from the targets, “How are you with moving targets?”

“I don’t know. My teachers frowned at us shooting at one another,” William joked.

“Yeah, Felicity doesn’t let us do that either,” Oliver said with a straight face. “Not since I shot Roy.”

“So, you get to practice hitting moving targets on the criminals?”

“When I’m facing a criminal, it’s past time for practice.” Oliver pulled a remote from his pocket and the targets began to move, “Luckily, I’m married to a genius who likes to tinker.” The targets stopped moving. “In the beginning, I used tennis balls. Back then, Felicity liked to refer to my target practice as tennis ball massacres.”

“Oliver, what happens to the Green Arrow when you decide to retire?” William asked as he pulled an arrow free.

“Hopefully, the city won’t need the Green Arrow anymore, but if it does, Roy’s eight years younger than me.” Oliver returned the handful of arrows he held to William’s quiver.

William was surprised by his dad’s answer. The Green Arrow and his team were beloved by the city. It was hard to imagine the Green Arrow without Spartan or Arsenal. “By himself? Is that safe?”

“In the beginning, I was by myself,” Oliver answered.

“But you decided you needed help,” William said casually.

“I couldn’t do it alone,” Oliver admitted. “I wouldn’t still be alive if I didn’t have Felicity, John and Roy.”

“Train me,” William said in a rush.

“No,” Oliver shook his head, “absolutely not.”

“Why not?” William couldn’t help but sound hurt. “I’m a good shot, even you said so.”

“Being a vigilante is more than being good with a bow and arrow.”

“Train me,” William said again. “I’m a fast learner. I know some martial arts.”

“It’s dangerous. It’s not a matter of, if you’ll get hurt – you will. John, Roy, me – even Felicity, we’ve all been shot. It’s not a game.”

“Train me,” William responded. He was certain he was meant to join his father and his team.

“It’s not up to me alone. John, Roy and Felicity will all have to say, yes,” Oliver told him. “Felicity is going to be hard to convince. You won’t get to go on the street without her go ahead.”

“That’s okay. I’ll convince them,” William said eagerly.

“You won’t be going out on the street right away. It might take months or even years before I decide you’re ready – I might never think you’re ready.” Seeing that William seemed undeterred, Oliver continued, “You are going to have to work harder than you’ve ever worked before. There are going to be nights when you’re going to be so sore and tired that you’ll curse John and me.”

“I want to do this, dad. Please, I think I could be good at it.”

“I’ll talk to the team tonight and I’ll let you know what they say.” Oliver held up a cautioning finger, “No promises. If one of them says no, that’s it.”

“Okay,” William smiled with relief. He didn’t think John or Roy would say, no. Felicity was the wild card. She hadn’t been herself since the twins were born. He knew something was wrong with his step-mom, but Oliver and Tommy were evasive whenever he asked if everything was okay with her. He hoped she wouldn’t shoot down his dream out of a sense of mom solidarity. “You’re not going to ask my mom for permission?”

“No, I won’t. If I let you out on the street, you’re going to have to decide if you’re going to keep this secret from Sam,” Oliver told him.

“Did you tell your mom?” William tried to imagine his grandmother’s reaction. From what he knew of the woman, he couldn’t imagine she would ever approve of her son jumping off roofs in leather pants while shooting arrows at criminals.

“I didn’t tell my mom. I was afraid she would disapprove.” A small smile turned up Oliver’s lips, “She figured it out. Before she died, she told me she was proud of me.”

“I’m not sure my mom will approve,” William replied honestly. “Is that a deal breaker?”

“No, you’re an adult. You can make this decision on your own. I will have plenty of rules for you, and the very first one is that it can’t interfere with your schoolwork or your grades. I expect you to maintain your GPA. Is that clear?” Oliver said in what William thought of as his _dad voice_.

“Yes, sir,” he agreed readily.

Oliver pushed a button on the remote and the targets began to move. He tapped another button and the lights in the room began to strobe, “All right, let’s get to work. Aim for the green circles. You drop your elbow too much – keep it aligned with your shoulder.”

A laser light began to bounce around the room. William followed the light and aimed for his target. He began to move around the room, letting his arrows fly at one target after another. He made small subtle adjustments to his form as Oliver coached him from the edge of the room. William felt like he was floating with happiness. He was going to prove to his dad that he had what it took to join him on the streets, and maybe one day, take the mantle of Green Arrow himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcomed and appreciated. Hearing from you is my favorite part of the day.
> 
> Finally home after eleven nights away. I was reunited with my girls this afternoon. I was greeted with lots of wet kisses and furry cuddles. Dogs really are the best things ever.
> 
> Prompt requests are encouraged.
> 
> You can also come say hi to me on tumblr. http://realityisoverrated-fic.tumblr.com


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